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The gender pay gap starts immediately after graduation, new research suggests. Figures on university leavers' destinations from the Higher Education Statistics Agency found that men were more than three times as likely to be offered a well-paid job on graduation than their female peers. At the top end of the pay scale, 455 of last year's male graduates were earning more than ?40,000, compared with 140 women.

Almost twice as many women as men were earning ?15,000 or less.

Almost three quarters (73.6 per cent) of higher education leavers interviewed were in work, up from 72.7 per cent the previous year.